Gimlet Lends a Hand/plot
Chapter I: Some Old Friends Meet Cub visits Copper and Trapper who are trying to run a garage. They swop stories for a while and then Cub shows them an advertisement Gimlet had sent him. It offered £10,000 for a man who could speak colloquial French, was used to living dangerously, skilled with lethal weapons and able to furnish highest references of moral character. "What about it?" was all Gimlet had said. Cub decides to go for the interview. Chapter II: A Tragedy of Riches Cub meets American millionaire Rudolf Vanderskell who wants him to rescue his son Johnny who has been kidnapped. Fifteen years ago his daughter Anne Vanderskell had also been kidnapped and had never been seen again. With Johnny he took further precautions. Johnny had been taught a coded of writing with which he could communicate a hidden message should the kidnappers ask him to write a ransom note. Johnny had managed to communicate one word: "Vallonceau", a town in the south of France. For identification, Cub should look for a small blue Maltese cross tattooed on his upper left arm. Cub gets permission to bring his commando friends along. Chapter III: Cub Takes a Job Vanderskell gives Cub an idea of the adversaries he is up against. There is "Joe the Snout" America's Public Enemy Number One and lieutenant, Louis Zaban, or Frenchie Lou. Cub sees a photo of Lou. Chapter IV: A Town That Time Forgot As a tactical move, Cub and his friends decide to go separately and pretend not to know each other. Cub would travel to Vallonceau by train and bus under the cover of being an artist. Copper and Trapper would drive their Ford there. Gimlet does not offer to lead the team, merely saying that Cub could call on him if he should run into difficulty. Chapter V: A Whiff of Smoke Cub joins Copper and Trapper at a table outside the hotel. They have trouble fending off a poet named "Leon" again who keeps imposing his company on them. Cub says he has a feeling that this town doesn't add up. He suggests going to see the chateau, which offers tours for a fee. The custodian at the chateau shows them around the castle. The tour yields nothing much for Copper but Cub is not so sure. The custodian was smoking an American "Lucky Strike" cigarette. Where would he get that from? Chapter VI: Money Talks There is no further progress for the next four days and Cub is getting worried. Sitting outside the hotel he notices some children playing near the wall and he tells them to be careful. The children assure him that they won't be harmed--they have a lucky charm. They show him the backs of their hands. On them are blue Maltese crosses! They tell Cub a gipsy girl Sara sells the charms. They think she is some kind of holy woman because she was born with the mark of the cross on her arm. Cub meets Sara and he offers to buy one of her charms. He then bets fifty francesthat she doesn't have a mark on her arm. She triumphantly shows her upper left arm to him: there is a blue Maltese cross. Cub is staggered. Chapter VII: Money Talks Again Sara's father, Sebastian Angelo, comes over and Cub's money works again. Sebastian admits that he got Sara as an abandoned baby. A woman had put the baby in a box and floated it down the river. He had picked it up and raised her. The woman was later killed by her husband, Cristiano Zabani, the proprietor of the Hostelrie du Château, an inn near the castle. He had a brother Louis, who got into trouble and left for America. Cub says Sara's real father would be willing to pay a lot for her. Meanwhile Sebastian must keep everything a secret and protect Sara from harm until Cub is ready to call for him. Sebastian is, of course,very keen to keep the secret and do what he is told. He would be leaving for Vence the next day in any case. Cub is fairly shaken by all the information he gleaned. There is too much of a coincidence. Sara must be Vanderskell's lost baby daughter Anne. And Zabani certainly sounds like Zaban. Back at the hotel, Cub meets the custodian of the Château with the waitress and asks them where he can find Cristiano Zabani. The custodian bursts out in laughter: he is Cristiano. Chapter VIII: The Scent Warms Up Cub is shocked for the second time and hastily invents an excuse that he wants to see Cristiano to open up the Hostelrie du Château because he had heard the inside had interesting features worth sketching. Cristiano says there is nothing of interest and leaves. Cub can tell he has become suspicious. The waitress Pierette is smoking an American cigarette. She tells Cub Cristiano gave it to her. Perhaps he gets them from Nice, she says. Copper and Trapper tell Cub they spotted a motorbike at the custodian's house. Now that Cristiano is suspicious of Cub, he must report to his boss soon. May be that's why he runs down to Nice. Cub decides to follow him when he does. Chapter IX: Cub Gets a Shock Cub and Copper follow a motorbike to Nice and discover Frenchie Lou (who must be Cristiano's brother) meeting up with Joe the Snout. With them is another man and also Leon, the poet in the pink shirt! Obviously he had put up the mad poet act in the hotel to keep an eye on new visitors. Back in Vallonceau, Trapper reports that he saw Cristiano entering and leaving the castle with a basket. Chapter X: An Eerie Reconnaissance Cub makes a reconnaissance of the castle using a tall ladder stolen from a builder's yard. Cub discovers a locked gate which must lead down to the dungeons but he hasn't brought the tools to open the lock. Back at the hotel, Joe the Snout and two others have arrived. They have problems being understood by the proprietor. Cub helps them translate and they get checked in. Chapter XI: Money for Nothing Next morning, Joe the Snout has a surprise for Cub. He is grateful for the help and gives Cub a sum of money--he wants Cub to travel elsewhere in France, "go see the sights". Cub can't very well refuse without arousing suspicion so he accepts the money. He avoids Joe's offer to drive him down to Nice by saying he has gotten friendly with Copper and Trapper and will hitch a ride with them. Copper and Trapper play along and say they are going to Nice and Cub is welcome to come along. Just prior to departure, the Poet turns up wanting a ride to Nice--obviously he has been detailed to ensure that Cub really does go there--but Copper angrily brushes him off. Cub, of course, has no intention to stay in Nice. He checks into a hotel while Copper and Trapper go and buy tools which they need to break into the château. They then make a secret rendezvous and head back to Vallonceau. Cub drops off at the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre just outside the town where he will hide until time to break into the château. Chapter XII: The Passage of the Styx Late into the night, Cub is shocked to hear Joe the Snout and Frenchie Lou's voice in the vicinity of the amphitheatre. It turns out Joe had anticipated Cub will come back and so posted Slinky (this is what they call the Poet) to keep watch from the castle tower. Slinky had indeed spotted Cub at the amphitheatre. Cub evades Joe and Lou but finds his escape in the other direction blocked by another gang member Jeff. Caught between two enemies, Cub takes the only way out which is to get onto an aqueduct which crosses a deep gorge between the amphitheatre and the town. Moving carefully across on the aqueduct, Cub has to make a dangerous leap across a gap where the span had broken off. Meanwhile, Jeff has been running over to the town side to cut him off. It's a race to see who gets there first. Unfortunately Jeff does and he draws a gun intending to shoot Cub. Suddenly, from the shadows behind Jeff, a figure emerges and knocks the gunman down. It's Gimlet! Chapter XIII: Gimlet Take Over Gimlet leads Copper and Cub back into the castle but they have to hide when they hear Cristiano coming in with a bunch of keys. He goes down into the dungeons and then yhey hear a boom. When Cristiano doesn't come back up, Gimlet decides to leave Copper watching the top and go down with Cub into the dungeons to take a look. The dungeon area is deserted but they discover a trapdoor at the end. This explains the boom. Chapter XIV: Into the Depths The trapdoor opens into a passageway. Gimlet and Cub follow it until it emerges inside a house. Cristiano is in a bedroom tidying up so Gimlet grabs him and demands to know where Johnny is. Cristiano says he's gone. Looking out of the window, they see that they are in the Hostelrie du Château. The Buick is by the Hotel Midi . Two men are loading suitcases into it. So Joe the Snout is pulling out with Johnny! Cristiano seizes the moment to run off. Other things are more urgent. Gimlet sends Cub to fetch Copper and head for the Buick. Cub runs back through the tunnel to Copper who has tied Cristiano up. It turns out he had also run back this way and Copper had taken the opportunity to seize him. A shrill whistle goes off--it's their commando signal and Trapper is calling them! Chapter XV: Trapper Pulls His Weight The story rolls back to Trapper on watch outside the castle. He sees Joe and his gang loading Johnny into the Buick and decides he must stop them. He runs to fetch their Ford and drives it to the narrow mountain road outside the town and fakes a breakdown and then whistles for help. Joe turns up and angrily demands that Trapper move out of the way but Trapper plays for time. Gimlet and the others turn up and takes the gang prisoner. Trapper collects Johnny from the Buick and drives off to safety. Meanwhile Gimlet pushes the Buick into the ravine and forces Joe and his gang to walk on. Chapter XVI: Buttoned Up A few days later, at Monte Carlo, Gimlet tells the others that everything is buttoned up and explains what happened. He had called Vanderskell and then the French police. He had anticipated that Joe would still try to collect the ransom at Paris, hoping that Vanderskell had not heard about the events at Vallonceau. Accordingly, the French and American police set a trap. Vanderskell faked the meeting with Joe and his gang, they turned up to collect the money, and were promptly arrested. Gimlet goes off while the rest await Vanderskell at Monte Carlo for a family reunion celebration. It would be quite a familym, with Johnny and now Sara/Anne as well. Category:Plot summaries